Deep In My Heart
A tale of romance and fretful Elves by Ellie in ElfPajamas.
Rating: PG13. Frightening scenes, some things that may be deemed 'suggestive'.
Genre: Angst/Humor/Spiritual/Drama/Romance
Summary: Caladriel has big news for her cousin Rinnalaiss in Rivendell, she's pregnant! Faelon is working hard to make the Southern Mirkwood fortress where he and Calad live a comfortable and Elfling-proof home, but he's running into trouble there. Legolas thinks he's too young to be an uncle. Melannen seems to have gained weight, Erestor seems a little jumpy, and Glorfindel is trying to get to the bottom of this mess. Elrond has been left blissfully ignorant, yet again.
Series: Yes! The Imladris Chronicles. While Cassia covers Legolas and Aragorn, I think I'll cover Glorfindel and Erestor. Previous stories were The Misadventures of Caladriel and Rinnalaiss and Gilded Rose of the House of Gondolin. Takes place four months after Gilded Rose.
Disclaimer: I do not own Erestor, Glorfindel, Elrond, Estel, Legolas, Elladan, Elrohir, Thranduil, Imladris, or the hobbit drinking songs. I do not own Mirkwood either, but neither does Tolkien.
Claimer: I do own Faelon, Caladriel, Faelien, Faeliel, Shadow, Naur, WhisperingSilver, WindDancer, MithrilArrow, and Rinn's snowpeas. Ask before using them.
Melannen is owned by the authoress Erestor, and Rinnalaiss was borrowed from Rinnalaiss Turegwaithen with permission.
Chapter one: Changes for Faelon.
Being married to the princess of Mirkwood was no picnic. Faelon had gone into the marriage knowing that, but he hadn't expected Caladriel to be so 'fruitful' right away. He'd thought he'd have a little more time to work on making the fortress 'childproof', but apparently Iluvatar had other ideas. Quite honestly, the poor half-Elf didn't have a clue how to make the many passages and nooks and crannies child-safe. His father-in-law was trying to help, but he was having too much fun dreaming of grandchildren.
Caladriel's pregnancy was showing, as well. Everyone knew that there would be an Elfling in the household of the Elvenking's son-in-law. Finally, Faelon snapped.
"Father, what in Arda did you do to Elfling-proof the palace when Legolas and Calad were small?" Faelon cried out in frustration.
Thanduil colored.
"Nothing." he said.
"Nothing?! You mean they just ran around through the palace, explored the dungeons and all manner of dangerous places, and you did nothing to stop them?"
"Essentially, yes. When they were tired enough or hungry enough they found their way back."
Faelon's jaw dropped.
"You must understand, Faelon, it wasn't because I didn't care, it was just that I knew they'd find a way past all the barriers even if the Valar devised them. Elflings are like that. So think about it this way; if your Elfling goes missing, look wherever you least want it to be first."
Faelon's image of Thranduil as intellegent, wise, benevolent lord of Mirkwood had just gone on an extended vacation.
Elrond's eye twitched. Too....Much...Paperwork! He wanted to scream and smash his head on the desk at the same time, partly because he couldn't decide which to do first.
"Erestor, you're never around when I need you!" Elrond whimpered.
He had two dozen reports to read today and his brain had suddenly gone on holiday.
Elves may never get sick, but that doesn't mean a hasseled, sleep-deprived Elven Lord never gets a tension headache. Estel had made his week a miserable one. He'd had a riding accident, bumped his head, and scared the living daylights out of both Elrond and the twins. Really all he'd had was a goosegg on the back of his head and a bit of bruising, but otherwise, he was right as rain. It had not been a good way for Elrond to start the week though. Worrying that your adopted son is in mortal danger is never a good way to start one's week.
Elrond wanted to shoot himself for what he was about to do, but he did it anyway. He walked into Erestor and Glorindel's 'space'. Their offices were in the same room, where they could hurl papers at each other and compare notes. Glorfindel was out like a light, his head resting on a sheaf of finally finished notes. Erestor was humming a ballad as he filed papers away in his latest invention, the filing cabinet. Erestor's office had become much more organized, due in large part that it embarassed him when his wife picked up after him. Melannen was nowhere in sight. Elrond's hopes sank.
"E-Erestor, could I ask you for a favor?" Elrond asked.
Erestor nodded, punctuating a sentence.
"I can't read those reports, Estel has given me a headache. Can Melannen go over them and paraphrase them for me?" Elrond asked.
Erestor nodded again and pointed toward the kitchen.
"She's baking. If she doesn't hit you with a rolling pin first, I'm sure she'll be happy to help you."
Erestor began to chew furiously on the butt of his pen. He was working on an 'official refusal', a dreadfully diplomatic and polite document, and having trouble finding sappy enough words.
"No wine, Rinn. Go to bed." Glorfindel murmured in his sleep. "Now see here, you can't be leaving these tunics all over."
Elrond raised an eyebrow to Erestor.
"Don't ask me. I think it's all in his head. I pity him, he's stuck with her all day and then he dreams about her." Erestor muttered.
Rinn did have a special brand of torture reserved for her favorite Gondolin Elf. She talked his ears off and generally made him crazy. Elrond knew it, but Glorfindel had seemed so resilient to it before. Maybe Rinn needed other distractions.
Celboril deposited a sack of mail on Erestor's desk. Erestor began to sort it quite mindlessly, pondering what words he needed for this letter of refusal. He handed Elrond his mail, nodded to the Elf Lord, and got back to work. Elrond decided to take it back to his office before he asked Melannen to help him with the reports.
Elrond sifted through the mail. Elven junkmail was quite a problem. It seemed that all the Elves in Arda wanted to write to the great Lord Elrond Peredhil, but quite honestly, there weren't enough hours in a day for Elrond to answer a fraction of the letters he got. So a letter from Faelon Beriorgan's fortress in Southern Mirkwood actually came as a pleasant surprise. It was a letter from Calad, inviting Elrond to send Rinn out to Mirkwood to spend the winter. Faelon had many horses, and Rinn just loved a full stable. A gleam of delight stole into Elrond's eyes. He'd unloaded one daughter on her maternal grandmother, now his other daughter could be shipped off to distant relatives? This was too good to be true.
If his memory served him right, Calad was somewhere near six months pregnant. Hmm. It might not be a great idea to send Rinn out there after all. Then again, it was Calad asking, and they had dungeons, so if Rinn got too out of hand, they could always lock her up. Not seeing or hearing her till spring could be a welcome thing. He went to the bottom of the steps and whistled.
Aragorn and Rinn thundered to the top of the steps, racing each other. Elladan and Elrohir scrambled to catch up as their little sister and adopted younger brother went flying down the steps to their father.
Elrond put up his hand to halt them.
"Rinn, Calad has invited you to winter out there in Mirkwood with the Beriorgans. Faelon says you can exercise horses till you fall over. Do you want to go?" Elrond asked.
Rinn arched an eyebrow.
"Do horses whinny?"
"I'll take that as a yes."
Estel and the twins groaned enviously.
"Lucky little girl! You get to ride those horses and we haven't even seen our mares for months." Elladan sighed.
The twins had left the mares to be bred, they were in foal to MithrilArrow right now. They missed the whispy little creatures, and missed them badly.
"Well, someone has to take Rinn out there, so you two and Estel may. Just don't stay so long that the pass freezes up." Elrond said.
The niggling fear in the back of his mind was that they would stay and the house would be much too quiet.
Glorfindel had an abstract thought that his forehead was rubbing against paper for some reason. He heard a distant voice calling his name, and wondered if he was dreaming about being dead. Oh well, at least it was a rather peaceful sort of dead. Then he felt a tug on his hair, and that didn't feel too good. He blinked sleepilly and saw letters dancing in front of his eyes. He sat bolt upright with a piece of paper stuck to his forehead.
"Glorfindel! I asked if you wanted lunch yet, it's almost 2:30." Erestor asked, pulling the paper off of Glorfindel's face.
The golden Elf squinted in the sudden light, and Erestor was hard pressed not to laugh, because the ink on the paper had left backwards Elvish lettering across Glorfindel's forehead.
"What's for lunch?" Glorfindel asked groggilly.
"I don't know, think maybe we should go find out? You need to start sleeping on your bed rather than your desk." Erestor said.
"I know," Glorfindel sighed, "but I haven't even made it out of my chair this week. I think I might have a slight sleep problem."
"Well, it's that or you just don't know when to lay your work aside and go to bed. There's this wonderful thing, it's called a clock, and you use it to tell time. It sits on your desk all the time. Maybe, just maybe, you should look at it once in a while."
Glorfindel grinned sheepishly.
"I forget to keep it wound."
Erestor rolled his eyes.
The two counselors walked down the hall to the kitchen. Melannen was working at the counter when they walked in. Erestor wrapped his arms around her and gave her a big kiss. Melannen smiled.
"What do you want? Did you two fall asleep at your desks and sleep through lunch again?"
"Glorfindel did, but I was working on one of those 'diplomatic refusal' letters for Elrond."
Glorindel gave her a sleepy smile.
Melannen laughed softly and shook her head, then set to work making lunch for Glorfindel and her husband.
Erestor and Melannen chattered back and forth, and Glorfindel chose to 'rest his eyes' for a moment. The minute he rested his head on his arm, he was out like a light. His long golden hair slid over his shoulders onto the marble countertop of the kitchen island. He drifted away to dreamland. He dreamed about when the twins and Arwen were little, before Rinn was born. They'd been so cute and innocent. What went wrong?
Mmmm, he smelled food. Food was good. Another distant voice called him to wake up and eat. That didn't sound like a bad idea. He opened his eyes and lifted his head from the countertop. Melannen pushed a plate in front of him.
"Come now, Glor, it's your favorite. Eat and then drag yourself to bed." Melannen coaxed.
It was indeed his favorite. He really liked cold ham and turkey. And there was lettuce, and tomato, and, oh, it was just the perfect sandwich.
"Thank you." he said.
He picked up the plate and turned to go.
"I think I'll take it to my room, eat it, and then read a good book till I fall asleep."
Melannen and Erestor nodded and watched him leave.
Melannen turned to Erestor.
"What happened? He was the hyperactive one, why is he the sleepy head now?" she asked.
Erestor shrugged.
"I guess I'll have to figure it out somehow. Can't have him asleep at his desk all the time."
Melannen smiled and started putting food in a basket.
"So, ready for our picnic?"
Erestor nodded.
"Where do you want to go?"
"How about the back garden, I want to talk to you about something."
Faelon was dead to the world. His blankets were all pulled around him and he was perfectly cozy. Calad thought he looked so cute that way. His curly hair was all fluffy, and curls drifted lazilly over his forehead. It was early in the morning, and he didn't have to get up yet. She rather liked to just sit and watch him when he was sleeping. She smiled, reaching for a loose, lazy curl. She smoothed it back into the rest of his hair. He blinked, but he didn't seem awake.
"Why is it you have the eyelashes I would kill for?" Calad breathed, tracing her husband's face with light fingers.
He stirred, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it.
"Good morning dear one," he whispered.
He opened his gentle green eys and looked at his wife. She smiled and rubbed her forehead against his.
"I like being married to you." she giggled. "You're always at my beck and call."
"Aye, the perils of marrying a princess." Faelon laughed softly.
Calad traced his collarbones with her index finger.
"Now stop that, you give me goosebumps!" Faelon murmured, moving to get out of bed.
"I didn't give you permission to leave me yet!" Calad teased, pulling him back down onto the bed beside her.
"Well pardon me, your highness, but there are many matters to which I must attend this morning."
"Well then, I want my good morning kiss."
Faelon smiled.
Erestor walked past Elrond looking like something had exploded in his face, minus the soot. Elrond tried to hail him, but to no avail. Erestor was sincerely not with it. Melannen had paraphrased the reports, but Elrond wanted to ask Erestor a few accounting questions. Glorfindel bounced down the hallway, quite awake. Since Elrond was heading for bed, that was exactly what he didn't want to see. Glorfindel smiled brightly at Elrond and continued down the stairs.
"No fire, no explosives!" Elrond mechanically admonished.
Glorfindel's muffled reply reached his ears, and Elrond hoped it meant that the ancient Elf would stay out of trouble.
Glorfindel rubbed his hands together excitedly and dug out his notes, along with a lantern that he'd tampered with. He'd worked out an alphabet in flashes of light, and he'd been sending little messages to the twins. They were having a great time. Glorfindel headed out into the back garden and waited.
Soon the twins flashed their lantern and the messages were flying back and forth. (To you and I, this messaging would look vaguely like Morse Code.) They messaged the night away, and had such fun making scathing remarks about any and all Elf Lords that they could think of.
Elrond saw mysterious lights in the garden for the fifth night straight. It was beginning to get to him, he didn't know the source of the light, and it flashed in odd patterns. He wondered if Glorfindel had seen them. He found Glorfindel asleep at his desk again. He wondered what the Gilded Elf had been working on. The notes that he'd had all over yesterday had been neatly put away. It looked like the reports were finally finished, which meant more reading for Elrond.
Rinnalaiss swung onto her horse's back and pulled her cloak tighter around her. The cold winds of winter were beginning to come down from the mountains, and the twins were going to have to drop Rinn off sooner than expected. Rinn spurred her horse forward, and the twins followed, with Estel bringing up the rear. They had a three day journey ahead of them. The packs across the horses' flanks were heavy with extra clothing and provisions for the journey. It was cold in the mountains, and Elves weren't foolish. They knew it was important to keep warm even if they personally didn't feel the cold. The horses felt the cold, and they needed to be cared for. Rinn rode a seal brown mare, and the twins were both on iron grey colts. Estel's horse was chestnut with a light colored mane and tail. The procession crossed the ford in single file, the horses sloshing eagerly through the icy-cold waters of the Bruinien. The small party urged their horses to a trot and turned for the pass into Mirkwood.
Glorfindel sighed, watching them leave. He turned to Elrond.
"You know the twins won't be back until spring, don't you?" he said.